By

Justice A. M. Ahmadi

Former Chief Justice of India On the
occasion of

National Convention

On

Empowerment of Muslims through the
Constitution of India

July 24, 2006

At Talkatora Stadium

New Delhi

ALL INDIA MILLI COUNCIL, NEW DELHI

Let me begin by congratulating the
office bearers of the organizers for hosting this Convention on ‘Empowerment of
Muslims in India through the Constitution’. The selection of this topic has two
significant aspects (i) the recognition of the need for empowerment and (ii) the
modus, namely, to achieve it through constitutional means. Very often a
question is posed whether there is any need for minority protection rights. The
answer to my mind is in the affirmative. It is common experience that
minorities are often subjected to repression and their rights have been a major
geopolitical issue. Such fears have manifested themselves in our country in
recent times during the regime of the previous government.

The need for minority rights has a
historical backdrop. After the Second World War, even though the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights made no specific mention of minority rights, it did
state that all humans are born equal. Soon the international community saw the
need to specifically spell it out and in 1966 the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights guaranteed minority rights in Article 27 in the
following terms:

“In those States in
which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to
such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other
members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice
their own religions or to use their own language.”

Since
it is now internationally recognised that there always is a possibility of
minorities being oppressed by the majority, every modern constitution provides
for minority rights and their protection. So does the Indian Constitution. In
fact the need to safeguard minority rights was reinforced when the aforesaid
international covenant was made a part of the definition of ‘human right’ in our
domestic law, namely, the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. Besides,
Article 21 of the Constitution protects life and liberty which can be enforced
through court, if necessary.

Our Constitution embodies
‘liberal’ principles as is evident from its Preamble, the Fundamental Rights and
the Directive Principles. The concepts of equality and non-discrimination, the
right to life and liberty, freedom of conscience and religion and the rights
conferred on the minorities to conserve their culture and language and to
establish educational institutions, are some of the shinning stars of
‘liberalism’. In addition, through legislation, we have recognized the need to
protect human rights. All this goes to show that the spirit of liberalism is
embedded in our constitutional philosophy. The communal forces have tried to
shatter this ‘liberalism’ by creating an anti-minority environment in the last
couple of decades.

The anti-minority environment created
through hate speeches, arson and assaults on Muslims and Christians and their
properties was let loose during the tenure of the BJP-led government with a view
to terrorise them and instill in them a sense of inferiority complex.
Theattempt at polarization
ofthe
country'spopulace isadangerousgame-plan
whichcan only weakenourdemocraticfabric,
stifledevelopmentandin
thelongrunleadto chaos. Those very
same political parties tried to bake their bread on the misfortune that had
befallen the inhabitants of Mumbai when they sought to give it a
communal/parochial colour. In this age of guided missiles, the more dangerous
are the misguided missiles which have a high potential to cause widespread harm
to humanity. The former are predictable, the latter are not. Every one knows
that terrorists are respecters of no faith, much less Islam which preaches peace
and brotherhood; yet, is it not unfortunate that an attempt was made to
communalise the event through a specialist rabble-rouser sent to Mumbai to whip
up passions. Fortunately to no avail. It goes to the credit of the inhabitants
of Mumbai that they did not allow such attempts to succeed. Although such
cowardly terrorist acts are generally planned and/or committed from across our
borders, the tendency to blame the Indian Muslims across the board must be
deprecated. At the same time Indian Muslims must expose such characters and
report them to the authorities, if they come to their notice.

Unfortunately, of all the
minorities, the Muslim minority has, over these 58 years of independence,
remained marginalized in all walks of life. Periodic riots have ruined them
economically. They have been victims of both direct and indirect
discrimination. The benefits of State Schemes have not percolated to them. A
special effort needs to be made to bring them into the mainstream of society but
unfortunately whenever some step to ameliorate their condition is sought to be
taken; members of BJP and allied parties raise the scare of pseudo-secularism
and appeasement to deter such action. I think these scarecrows need to be shooed
away. Affirmative action is urgently needed to bridge down the disparity ratio
that has slowly built up with the passage of time since independence. Whenever
the Sachhar Committee seeks certain information from the concerned bodies, the
antenna of appeasement is immediately hosted. I often wonder, what is it that
these parties fear if the Indian Muslim is empowered! Their effective
participation will only add pace to the development of this country. Otherwise,
their economic and educational backwardness can be a drag on the system.

I have always lamented the fact
that we have kept almost 50% of our human resource, I mean the women folk,
virtually out of effective participation in state affairs. The drop out ratio
of girls from schools is very high as compared to boys. Girls from other
communities are showing great enthusiasm for education whereas Muslim girls are
denied education. In this age of technology educated girls can play an
effective role in augmenting the family income and thus raising the standard of
living. With technological advancement, courses which can help a girl child
work in comfortable environment are available. These can be identified. Please
bear in mind that without educating the women folk you are denying to yourself
empowerment. Even the percentage of Muslim boys taking education is quite low.
With the introduction of Article 21A as a fundamental right to free and
compulsory education, the excuse of economic constraint has virtually
disappeared. The only direct path to empowerment is through education. Educate
your girls and boys, the better their education the higher will be the
empowerment quotient.

Members of the Muslim community
must realize that empowerment can only come through acquisition of knowledge
though proper education. I was recently examining the statistics from the
census of 2001 and found that of the total population of India, Muslims were
around 14 crores; of them around 192 lakhs were receiving education at the
primary level, 105 lakhs at the secondary level, 73 lakhs at the matriculation
level and 30 lakhs at the higher secondary level with only 24 lakhs at the
graduation level i.e. in all about 4 crores only. I think this percentage at
the college level needs to be substantially increased. Shri. Mani Shankar Aiyar
in his recent publication ‘Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist’ laments as
under (pages 182-183):

The failure of our secular state
lies not in the appeasement of Muslims but in our failure over five decades to
provide them with even a modicum of their rightful place in nation building.
Less than 3 per cent of our higher civil/police services comprise Muslim
officers and even in the meanest grades of government employment, Muslims
account for about 4 per cent of the total number employed. The situation gets
worse in the economic sector-nationalized banks and public sector enterprises
take an even smaller percentage of Muslim employees. And, in the private
sector, there is a shameful absence both of Muslim executives and Muslim
entrepreneurs. Worst of all, the politics of the country is marked by a
desperately inadequate representation of Muslims in our elected institutions.’

It is clear that there is an
underlying bias against the Muslims which needs to be removed by all concerned.
The above statistics entitle the Muslims to ask, particularly the political
parties what action it proposes to take to enable the Muslims to seek
empowerment through the Constitution and the laws of the country.

The Creator, call him by any
name, gave the humankind the mind and the pen to be able to think rationally and
to express their thoughts freely so that they may prompt others to think. That
is why all modern constitutions make freedom of speech and expression a
fundamental right and so does our constitution in Article 19(1)(a). The average
Muslim during these challenging times finds himself caught between two opposite
drags of modernity and orthodoxy. Put differently, for want of education he
finds himself unable to confront the challenges, unable to use the Creator’s
gift to think rationally and stands benumbed by the scientific and technological
developments that surround him. Consequently, he fails to apply his mind to the
issues that confront him and finds comfort in the emotive irrational utterances
of certain fanatics who take advantage of their ignorance and misguide them.

I am afraid, as I view the
scenario of the Muslim ummah; I find them moving at bullock-cart pace. I am
sorry to say that our clerics have not been made aware of the long strides
science has taken in recent times. They have remained in the dark and need to be
made aware of the dynamics of scientific developments that have taken place in
the last few decades. Many of them still refuse to believe that humans have
entered space and have landed on the moon, despite television flashes. They in
turn dissuade others from believing these hard realities. It is high time that
clerics and tulbas are made aware of the scientific developments that are taking
place around them so that they may shed their ill-conceived notions, come out of
the shell and take advantage of the developments that are taking place.

It is known to all, who care to
know, that Indian Muslims are generally economically as well as educationally
backward. That is because of (i) adverse historical reasons and (ii) negative
attitude. Firstly, their participation in the 1857 War of Independence (the
British called it the Mutiny) incurred the wrath of the British and consequently
Muslims were discriminated. This led them virtually begging for doles. The
British then played the game of divide and rule. They threw a few crumbs in the
form of reservations in government jobs in lower echelons of service and
separate electorates for seats in the legislatures. But this lowered them in
their self-esteem. This situation manifests itself even now, Muslims suffer
discrimination in all walks of life and even after giving up the demand for
reservation of seats in legislative chambers, you hear them demanding
reservation in services. Last year, while speaking at the Rajiv Gandhi
Sadhbhavana function, I had observed that those in power need to introspect why
Muslims who had given up the demand for reservation based on percentage of
population and had kept quiet for over five decades were now driven to demand
reservation. It is time to remove the causes that have denied them a fair
opportunity to share the benefits and participate in the development of the
nation. The diversity of our pluralistic culture is not reflected in our
democratic institutions which accounts for their inadequate representation.

The second reason for their
backwardness stems from their own attitude. They had developed a certain
attitude during the Muslim rule and that attitude persisted during the British
rule and persists even now. Efforts made by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan to impress upon
the Ummah to develop a scientific temper, to take to secular education, to learn
the English language and to change their way of thinking, only met with partial
success. Even though the Prophet (PBUH) exhorted the ummah to acquire
knowledge, even if that required travelling to China, their easy way of life
and inertia has robbed them of their vitality and kept them from taking to
modern education; thus blunting their power, rather Allah’s gift, to think
rationally and not be led by misguided and ignorant so-called leaders.

Often those propagating modern
science-oriented education are sought to be silenced by quoting some sura of the
Quran out of context. We Muslims believe that Quran was revealed by the
Almighty to our beloved Prophet (PBUH). Then we must also accept the fact that
Allah could foresee how science will mould the society in the years to come. We
must attribute to Allah the vision to see the future developments and provide
the way of life for his Ummah in changing circumstances. That is the reason why
he gave the human-kind the power to think rationally. Think, use your own
thinking power, rationalise your thoughts and take the decision which you
consider best. Do not mortgage your decision-making power - Allah will help you
reach the right decision.

It is high time that we stop
living in the past and start living in the present and work for a brighter
future. We have to mould our own destiny – ‘mustaqbil’, no one else can do it
for you. The only sure way is through education using the constitutional right
of free and compulsory education enshrined in the newly added Article 21A in
Part III, viz., Chapter on Fundamental Rights. Let us stop blaming others for
our miseries, let us introspect and correct our mistakes, and march on. Not to
provide education to your children is a serious crime since you are destroying
their destiny and leaving them to suffer the same plight as you presently are
suffering.

This nation can ill-afford to
forget the contribution of Muslims who fought shoulder to shoulder with freedom
fighters belonging to other denominations. Can this nation forget the
contributions made by Maulana Azad, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and scores of others who
participated in the freedom struggle? Except for a tiny minority that migrated
to Pakistan, the vast majority took a conscious decision to stay in India,
inspired by the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. They like other
citizens of free India had their hopes and aspirations. They are therefore
entitled to claim their Constitutional rights and seek empowerment like others
through the Constitution. In fact they should be encouraged to seek recourse
through the Constitution. The fountain-head of all our laws being the
Constitution, every citizen can only expect to empower himself through the
Constitution and so should the ummah as citizens of this great country and the
State should extend every possible assistance to them to secure this goal so
that they could also contribute in the growth of the country. There can be no
other road to empowerment.

The thrust of globalization has
left no country and no civilisation in hermetically-sealed containers. What
took place during the last few decades of the 20th century may just be the
precursor to what the 21st century has in store for the human civilisation. The
entire human race, regardless of caste, creed and religion shall have to join
hands and work in harmony to assimilate and enjoy the fruits of the scientific
advance. Together men and women will have to adjust to the social
transformation that it is and will bring about. Things are moving at enormous
speed, the rapid changes that will take place will leave no time for leisurely
discourse and those who fail to move fast will languish, for time and tide wait
for none.

There is nothing for the Muslim
minority to fear but they must pursue their effort at empowerment through no
means other then the Constitution and the laws of the country. The recently
passed ‘The Right to Information Act, 2005’ which confers on the citizens
certain rights to access and secure information under the control of every
public authority can be an effective lever to fight discrimination, denial of
rights, etc. A responsible use of this law can provide information which was
hitherto not accessible to the members of the community. Certain centres can be
set up to which the community members can approach for information.

I thank you for your time and
patience. I also once again thank the organizers for giving me this opportunity
to share my thoughts.